Terrorists came into grassland, separated women, children before firing
*Attackers asked named before shooting down people
*Father was asked to recite Islamic verse: Daughter
*Para commandos, police, CRPF join searches to hunt down assailants
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Apr 22: In a dastardly act, at least 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed at the famous hill station of Pahalgam this afternoon.
An official said that terrorists opened fire at civilians at Baisaran meadow in the hills of Pahagam killing at least 26 of them, mostly tourists. The attack is the deadliest in Kashmir since the Pulwama strike in 2019 on a CRPF convoy.
The 26 dead included two locals, 24 tourists including a Navy officer and two foreigners from UAE and Nepal. The tourists were mostly from Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP and Gujarat. Lieutenant Vinay Narwal, 26, who was posted in Kochi, while he was on leave. He is a native of Haryana and got married on 16th April.
An IB officer Manish Ranjan from Bihar, posted in Hyderabad was among the casualties. He had come to Kashmir on LTC along with his wife and two kids.
The Resistance Front (TRF), a shadow group of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), claimed responsibility.
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The official said that a group of terrorists came into the grassland and separated the women and children from men milling around eateries, taking pony rides or just picnicking. They fired at the men leaving 13 of them dead on the spot. One woman was among two dozen injured in the attack and she later succumbed as did other injured.
Eyewitnesses painted a chilling picture of gunfire breaking the calm with scores of people enjoying their day out. Cries for help were heard as lifeless bodies lay motionless in pools of blood.
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A tourist who was shooting a video when gunfire started is viral on social media. The tourist is seen running away and taking cover. Another video of a tourist shot after the attack is heard saying that he had a narrow escape in the attack.
“My husband was shot in the head. Please save him”, a video of a woman survivor while seeking help from a local has also gone viral on social media.
A woman tourist said that gunshots rang out, there was panic and tourists ran for cover but there was no place to hide. She said that the terrorists first asked the name before shooting down the victims.
Asavari Jagdale, 26, year old daughter of Pune businessman Santosh Jagdale, 54, said that his father was shot by gun men and followed by his uncle at Baisaran. She narrated a horrific incident that her father was asked to come out and recite an Islamic verse. “When he couldn’t, they shot him thrice: once in the head, then behind the ear and then his back,” she said.
“After her father fell to the ground, the gunmen turned on her uncle who was lying next to her and shot him several times in the back. We were a group of five people, including my parents,” she said.
She, her mother and another female relative were spared, and locals and security forces evacuated them to Pahalgam Club where they remain clueless about the fate of the two men.
“We immediately rushed to a nearby tent for protection. So did six to seven others (tourists). We all lay down on the ground as protection against the firing which we then assumed was between the terrorists and security personnel,” she said.
Jagdale said that the terrorists blamed them for supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which they made some statements to deny that Kashmiri militants kill innocent people, women and children.
“They shot several other males who were at the spot. There was nobody to help. No police or Army. Even the locals there were reciting the Islamic verse,” she said.
With Baisaran accessible only by foot or horses, choppers were deployed to evacuate the injured. The families of those killed and injured were taken to the Government-owned Pahalgam Club under tight security.
The entire district administration and police force was mobilised and ambulances pressed into service.
Some of the injured were brought down from the meadow by local people on their ponies.
A massive operation was launched by police, Army and CRPF and later elite para commandos also joined them to hunt down the assailants and security forces have fanned out in all directions.
Pahalgam town, which was teeming with tourists this morning, went into complete silence. Tourists began leaving in droves.
Baisaran, about six kilometres from Pahalgam, is an expansive meadow ringed by dense pine forests and mountains and a favourite with visitors. It is a campsite for trekkers who then move further up to the Tulian lake, which is accessible from Pahalgam either on foot or on horses.
Eyewitnesses claimed that as soon as the bullets started flying, the handful of locals who earn a livelihood from tourism ran for safety, leaving the tourists as sitting ducks.
The local tourist guides and ponywallahs consoled the survivors even as they summoned more people to evacuate the injured tourists on their shoulders to the nearest motorable point.
As soon as the news of the attack broke out, the roads and streets of Pahalgam wore a deserted look as the tourists, who had come in numbers, left the resort town to safer places.
A tourist couple from Rajasthan was injured in a firing incident by terrorists at Yannar in Pahalgam in May last year.
A video of the Pahalgam attack site emerged showing several people bleeding and lying motionless on the ground while women tourists were wailing and looking for their near and dear ones. Some were too stunned to react and were being helped by locals.
LIST OF DEAD & INJURED DEAD
Name Parentage State
Manju Nath Shivamu Karnataka
Vinay Narwal Rajesh Narwal Haryana
Shubham Dwivedi Sanjay UP
Dilip Jayaram Desale Maharashtra
Sundip Nevpane Nepal
Bitan Adhkeri
Udhwani Pradeep Kumar UAE
Atul Shrikant Mone Shriam Achal Maharashtra
Sanjay Lakhan Lele
Syed Hussan Shah Syed Harder Anantnag J&K
Himat Bhai Kalathiay Surat Guajrat
Prasant Kumar Baleshwar
Manish Ranjan
Ramchandram Narayan Meonon
Shalinder Kalpiya
Shivam Mogga Karnataka
INJURED
Vini Bhai Ruwani Bhai Gujarat
Manik patil
Rino Pandey
S. Balachandru Maharashtra
Dr Parmeshwaram Arumugam Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Abhijavam Rao Karnataka
Santru Age Tamil Nadu
Shashi Kumari W/o Ranjit Kumar Odisha
Balachandra Sankara Pandya Tamil Nadu
Sobhit Patel Mumbai
Major terror attacks on civilians in Kashmir
Timeline of major terror attacks on civilians in Kashmir since 2000.
*March 21, 2000
Militants targeted the minority Sikh community in Chattisinghpora village in Anantnag district on the night of March 21, killing 36 people.
*August 2000
Thirty-two people, including two dozen Amarnath pilgrims, were killed in a terror attack at the Nunwan base camp.
* July 2001
Amarnath yatris were again targeted, this time at the Sheshnag base camp in Anantnag, killing 13.
* October 1, 2001
Jammu & Kashmir State Legislature Complex in Srinagar was struck by a suicide (fidayeen) terrorist attack, killing 36 people.
* 2002
Terror struck at Chandanwari base camp, and 11 Amarnath yatris were killed.
* November 23, 2002
Nineteen people, including nine security force personnel, three women and two children, lost their lives in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast at Lower Munda in South Kashmir on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.
* March 23, 2003
Terrorists massacred at least 24 Kashmiri Pandits, including 11 women and two children, at Nandimarg village in Pulwama district.
* June 13, 2005
Thirteen civilians, including two school children, and three CRPF officers were killed, and over 100 people sustained injuries when an explosives-laden car blew up at a crowded marketplace in front of a Government school in Pulwama.
* June 12, 2006
Nine Nepali and Bihari labourers were killed in Kulgam.
* July 10, 2017
Attack on Amarnath Yatra bus in Kulgam, 8 killed.
* October, 2024
Six migrant workers and a doctor were shot dead by militants who opened fire near a tunnel construction site at Gagangir in Ganderbal district.
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